Asian

The Hmong godmother who brought the faith to her Vietnamese village

Catholic Parveen Bibi’s life is an example of how poor Christian mothers contribute to the Church’s growth in Pakistan For Mary Song Thi May, a 32-year-old mother of two, her deprived childhood and difficult youth are a distant memory since she embraced Catholicism. “I no longer feel wretched about life as Catholicism is the breath […]

Church music hits right note in Bangladesh

For more than three decades, Ruma Brizita Biswas had sung several popular liturgical and devotional songs with incorrect notations and lyrics because nobody taught her the correct versions. “One of my favorite songs is Jishu ghrinar rajjye enechho tomar prem (Jesus, you brought your love to the kingdom of hatred), but I had been singing it […]

Mongolian mission challenges African nuns

For Sister Tireza Gabriel Usamo, a 38-year-old Catholic nun from Ethiopia in Africa, the climate and customs of Mongolia have been a constant challenge ever since she went there as a missionary. She is part of a three-member team of nuns from Consolata Missionaries working in Arvaikheer town in central Mongolia. The Church in Mongolia […]

Japanese Catholic toils 40 years on world’s tallest Marian statue

An elderly Catholic sculptor in Nagasaki, Japan, is all set to complete and install the world’s tallest wooden statue of the Virgin Mary after four decades of time, energy and money. Eiji Oyamatsu, 88, a Catholic from Fujisawa, Kanagawa prefecture, will unveil the 10-meter wooden statue of Mary with the child Jesus at the end […]

Putin’s senseless war hurts the poor of Asia, Africa

Russia’s invasion is causing inflation and threatening millions of people who depend on Ukrainian produce The savage war of Vladimir Putin against the peaceful people of Ukraine is the work of a man with ambitions bent on trying to secure his place in Russian history as the leader who restored the false “glory” of the […]

Afghan Christians find new hope in Pakistan

Three days before the Taliban seized control of Kabul, Arifa Rahimi received a threatening phone call. “You have been traced. We know that you are a Shia kafir [infidel] and a journalist reporting against us,” said the unknown caller. In September 2021, Rahimi hired a car to reach the Chaman-Spin Boldak border with her younger […]

Filipino prelate gets another top Vatican post

Pope Francis has appointed Manila’s former archbishop Cardinal Luis Tagle as a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Cardinal Tagle’s appointment, along with several other leading churchmen including Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, was announced by the Holy See’s press office on June 1. The Congregation for Divine […]

India is facing a firestorm over ruling party officials’ comments about Islam. Here’s what you need to know

India is trying to contain the diplomatic fallout as outrage grows in the Muslim world following derogatory comments made by ruling party officials about the Prophet Mohammed. The United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Oman, and Iraq are among at least 15 Muslim-majority nations to have condemned the remarks, which were described as “Islamophobic,” with several countries […]

Eviction-facing Indian Catholics to fight Muslim charity’s claims

Goans oppose tourism project near 16th century basilica